Your daily dose of photovoltaic technology developments and solar news

Every day, mankind consumes as much energy as it took the earth 1,370 years to store. The International Energy Agency estimates that by the year 2030, worldwide electricity consumption will have increased annually by approximately 2.4%.

The importance of rapid and accurate measurement of the electrical power output and related characteristics of photovoltaic (PV) modules or panels concluding the manufacturing process cannot be overemphasized. Even though these modules will likely be deployed under a variety of outdoor solar illumination conditions, they must be tested under a set of standard conditions to assure consistency of results demanded by both the manufacturer and the customer.

Increasing the efficiency and yield of production line processes forms an integral part of PV manufacturers' technology roadmaps. For their next-generation production lines, non-contact processing equipment is considered essential.

Si etch processes are vital steps in Si solar cell manufacturing. They are used for saw damage removal, surface texturing and parasitic junction removal. The next generation of Si solar cells, featuring thinner wafers and passivated rear surfaces, will pose more stringent demands on those steps. Surface decoupling (achieving different surface treatments on the front and the rear) has to be achieved while minimizing Si consumption. Plasma texturing is an emerging technique that appears very promising in that respect, as efficiencies as high as 17.4 % have been achieved on screenprinted multicrystalline Si solar cells incorporating this process.

Thin-film solar cell manufacturing is poised to make a giant leap in scale with the birth of the gigawatt fab. Commercial thin-film plants are typically sized based on the capacity of the production line from the chosen equipment supplier. In most cases, initial investments have been for a single line, typically with an output capacity of no more than 60MWp. This period of initial development has allowed the industry to prove the robustness of the technology and capabilities of the equipment, as well as to understand the significance for the cost-per-watt of key cost drivers such as materials reduction, cell efficiency increases, and productivity.

Thin-film silicon solar cells are a potentially low-cost alternative to solar cells based on bulk silicon that are commonly used in the industry at the present time. However, a major drawback of the current epitaxial semi-industrial screenprinted cells is that they only achieve an efficiency of about 11-12%.

Solar enterprises will each be faced with the occasional surplus or lack of solar modules in their lifetimes. In these instances, it is useful to adjust these stock levels at short notice, thus creating a spot market.

Each year, the photovoltaic market has been achieving a two-digit growth rate. The resulting economy-of-scale effects are not enough to achieve grid parity on their own. In order to reduce the production costs to grid parity level, new concepts and ideas must be realised as the basis for a photovoltaic factory.

Standardized requirements for the quality of PV modules, solar cells and wafers are given in the according IEC norms (e.g., IEC 61215, 61646 and IEC 61730 for modules). However, the manufacturers of cells purchasing wafers and the module manufacturers purchasing cells want information beyond the final check of the product and to monitor each step during the production process to identify harsh handling and/or machine faults at the earliest stage possible.

Today’s PV industry is growing at a rapid rate, but the industry would grow even faster if costs could be reduced for both the final products and the capital investment required for scale-up. One strategy for reducing module costs to reduce the amount of semiconductor material needed (the cost of the silicon solar cells typically comprises more than half of the module cost).